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INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU organization
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Maintaining Findutils: (find-maint).        Maintaining GNU findutils
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This manual explains how GNU findutils is maintained, how changes
should be made and tested, and what resources exist to help developers.

   This is edition 4.4.0, for findutils version 4.4.0.

   Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

Maintaining GNU Findutils
*************************

This manual explains how GNU findutils is maintained, how changes should
be made and tested, and what resources exist to help developers.

   This is edition 4.4.0, for findutils version 4.4.0.

   Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".

* Menu:

* Introduction::
* Maintaining GNU Programs::
* Design Issues::
* Coding Conventions::
* Tools::
* Using the GNU Portability Library::
* Documentation::
* Testing::
* Bugs::
* Distributions::
* Internationalisation::
* Security::
* Making Releases::
* GNU Free Documentation License::


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Introduction,  Next: Maintaining GNU Programs,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Introduction
**************

This document explains how to contribute to and maintain GNU Findutils.
It concentrates on developer-specific issues.  For information about
how to use the software please refer to *Note Introduction:
(find)Introduction.

   This manual aims to be useful without necessarily being verbose.
It's also a recent document, so there will be a many areas in which
improvements can be made.  If you find that the document misses out
important information or any part of the document is be so terse as to
be unuseful, please ask for help on the <bug-findutils@gnu.org> mailing
list.  We'll try to improve this document too.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Maintaining GNU Programs,  Next: Design Issues,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

2 Maintaining GNU Programs
**************************

GNU Findutils is part of the GNU Project and so there are a number of
documents which set out standards for the maintenance of GNU software.

`standards.texi'
     GNU Project Coding Standards.  All changes to findutils should
     comply with these standards.  In some areas we go somewhat beyond
     the requirements of the standards, but these cases are explained
     in this manual.

`maintain.texi'
     Information for Maintainers of GNU Software.  This document
     provides guidance for GNU maintainers.  Everybody with commit
     access should read this document.   Everybody else is welcome to
     do so too, of course.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Design Issues,  Next: Coding Conventions,  Prev: Maintaining GNU Programs,  Up: Top

3 Design Issues
***************

The findutils package is installed on many many systems, usually as a
fundamental component.  The programs in the package are often used in
order to successfully boot or fix the system.

   This fact means that for findutils we bear in mind considerations
that may not apply so much as for other packages.  For example, the fact
that findutils is often a base component motivates us to
   * Limit dependencies on libraries

   * Avoid dependencies on other large packages (for example,
     interpreters)

   * Be conservative when making changes to the 'stable' release branch

   All those considerations come before functionality.  Functional
enhancements are still made to findutils, but these are almost
exclusively introduced in the 'development' release branch, to allow
extensive testing and proving.

   Sometimes it is useful to have a priority list to provide guidance
when making design trade-offs.   For findutils, that priority list is:

  1. Correctness

  2. Standards compliance

  3. Security

  4. Backward compatibility

  5. Performance

  6. Functionality

   For example, we support the `-exec' action because POSIX compliance
requires this, even though there are security problems with it and we
would otherwise prefer people to use `-execdir'.  There are also cases
where some performance is sacrificed in the name of security.  For
example, the sanity checks that `find' performs while traversing a
directory tree may slow it down.   We adopt functional changes, and
functional changes are allowed to make `find' slower, but only if there
is no detectable impact on users who don't use the feature.

   Backward-incompatible changes do get made in order to comply with
standards (for example the behaviour of `-perm -...' changed in order
to comply with POSIX).  However, they don't get made in order to
provide better ease of use; for example the semantics of `-size -2G'
are almost always unexpected by users, but we retain the current
behaviour because of backward compatibility and for its similarity to
the block-rounding behaviour of `-size -30'.  We might introduce a
change which does not have the unfortunate rounding behaviour, but we
would choose another syntax (for example `-size '<2G'') for this.

   In a general sense, we try to do test-driven development of the
findutils code; that is, we try to implement test cases for new
features and bug fixes before modifying the code to make the test pass.
Some features of the code are tested well, but the test coverage for
other features is less good.  If you are about to modify the code for a
predicate and aren't sure about the test coverage, use `grep' on the
test directories and measure the coverage with `gcov' or another test
coverage tool.

   Lastly, we try not to depend on having a "working system".  The
findutils suite is used for diagnosis of problems, and this applies
especially to `find'.  We should ensure that `find' still works on
relatively broken systems, for example systems with damaged
`/etc/passwd' files.  Another interesting example is the case where a
system is a client of one or more unresponsive NFS servers.  On such a
system, if you try to stat all mount points, your program will hang
indefinitely, waiting for the remote NFS server to respond.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Coding Conventions,  Next: Tools,  Prev: Design Issues,  Up: Top

4 Coding Conventions
********************

Coding style documents which set out to establish a uniform look and
feel to source code have worthy goals, for example greater ease of
maintenance and readability.  However, I do not believe that in general
coding style guide authors can envisage every situation, and it is
always possible that it might on occasion be necessary to break the
letter of the style guide in order to honour its spirit, or to better
achieve the style guide's goals.

   I've certainly seen many style guides outside the free software world
which make bald statements such as "functions shall have exactly one
return statement".  The desire to ensure consistency and obviousness of
control flow is laudable, but it is all too common for such bald
requirements to be followed unthinkingly.  Certainly I've seen such
coding standards result in unmaintainable code with terrible
infelicities such as functions containing `if' statements nested nine
levels deep.  I suppose such coding standards don't survive in free
software projects because they tend to drive away potential
contributors or tend to generate heated discussions on mailing lists.
Equally, a nine-level-deep function in a free software program would
quickly get refactored, assuming it is obvious what the function is
supposed to do...

   Be that as it may, the approach I will take for this document is to
explain some idioms and practices in use in the findutils source code,
and leave it up to the reader's engineering judgement to decide which
considerations apply to the code they are working on, and whether or
not there is sufficient reason to ignore the guidance in current
circumstances.

* Menu:

* Make the Compiler Find the Bugs::
* The File System Is Being Modified::
* Don't Trust the File System Contents::
* Debugging is For Users Too::
* Factor Out Repeated Code::


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Make the Compiler Find the Bugs,  Next: The File System Is Being Modified,  Up: Coding Conventions

4.1 Make the Compiler Find the Bugs
===================================

Finding bugs is tedious.  If I have a filesystem containing two million
files, and a find command line should print one million of them, but in
fact it misses out 1%, you can tell the program is printing the wrong
result only if you know the right answer for that filesystem at that
time.  If you don't know this, you may just not find out about that
bug.  For this reason it is important to have a comprehensive test
suite.

   The test suite is of course not the only way to find the bugs.  The
findutils source code makes liberal use of the assert macro.  While on
the one hand these might be a performance drain, the performance impact
of most of these is negligible compared to the time taken to fetch even
one sector from a disk drive.

   Assertions should not be used to check the results of operations
which may be affected by the program's external environment.  For
example, never assert that a file could be opened successfully.  Errors
relating to problems with the program's execution environment should be
diagnosed with a user-oriented error message.  An assertion failure
should always denote a bug in the program.

   Several programs in the findutils suite perform self-checks.  See for
example the function `pred_sanity_check' in `find/pred.c'.  This is
generally desirable.

   There are also a number of small ways in which we can help the
compiler to find the bugs for us.

4.1.1 Constants in Equality Testing
-----------------------------------

It's a common error to write `=' when `==' is meant.  Sometimes this
happens in new code and is simply due to finger trouble.  Sometimes it
is the result of the inadvertent deletion of a character.  In any case,
there is a subset of cases where we can persuade the compiler to
generate an error message when we make this mistake; this is where the
equality test is with a constant.

   This is an example of a vulnerable piece of code.

     if (x == 2)
      ...

   A simple typo converts the above into

     if (x = 2)
      ...

   We've introduced a bug; the condition is always true, and the value
of `x' has been changed.  However, a simple change to our practice
would have made us immune to this problem:

     if (2 == x)
      ...

   Usually, the Emacs keystroke `M-t' can be used to swap the operands.

4.1.2 Spelling of ASCII NUL
---------------------------

Strings in C are just sequences of characters terminated by a NUL.  The
ASCII NUL character has the numerical value zero.  It is normally
represented in C code as `\0'.  Here is a typical piece of C code:

     *p = '\0';

   Consider what happens if there is an unfortunate typo:

     *p = '0';

   We have changed the meaning of our program and the compiler cannot
diagnose this as an error.  Our string is no longer terminated.  Bad
things will probably happen.  It would be better if the compiler could
help us diagnose this problem.

   In C, the type of `'\0'' is in fact int, not char.  This provides us
with a simple way to avoid this error.  The constant `0' has the same
value and type as the constant `'\0''.  However, it is not as
vulnerable to typos.    For this reason I normally prefer to use this
code:

     *p = 0;


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Factor Out Repeated Code,  Prev: Debugging is For Users Too,  Up: Coding Conventions

4.2 Factor Out Repeated Code
============================

Repeated code imposes a greater maintenance burden and increases the
exposure to bugs.  For example, if you discover that something you want
to implement has some similarity with an existing piece of code, don't
cut and paste it.  Instead, factor the code out.  The risk of cutting
and pasting the code, particularly if you do this several times, is
that you end up with several copies of the same code.

   If the original code had a bug, you now have N places where this
needs to be fixed.  It's all to easy to miss some out when trying to
fix the bug.  Equally, it's quite possible that when pasting the code
into some function, the pasted code was not quite adapted correctly to
its new environment.  To pick a contrived example, perhaps it modifies a
global variable which it that code shouldn't be touching in its new
home.  Worse, perhaps it makes some unstated assumption about the
nature of the input arguments which is in fact not true for the context
of the now duplicated code.

   A good example of the use of refactoring in findutils is the
`collect_arg' function in `find/parser.c'.  A less clear-cut but larger
example is the factoring out of code which would otherwise have been
duplicated between `find/find.c' and `find/ftsfind.c'.

   The findutils test suite is comprehensive enough that refactoring
code should not generally be a daunting prospect from a testing point of
view.  Nevertheless there are some areas which are only lightly-tested:

  1. Tests on the ages of files

  2. Code which deals with the values returned by operating system
     calls (for example handling of ENOENT)

  3. Code dealing with OS limits (for example, limits on path length or
     exec arguments)

  4. Code relating to features not all systems have (for example
     Solaris Doors)

   Please exercise caution when working in those areas.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Debugging is For Users Too,  Next: Factor Out Repeated Code,  Prev: Don't Trust the File System Contents,  Up: Coding Conventions

4.3 Debugging is For Users Too
==============================

Debug and diagnostic code is often used to verify that a program is
working in the way its author thinks it should be.  But users are often
uncertain about what a program is doing, too.  Exposing them a little
more diagnostic information can help.  Much of the diagnostic code in
`find', for example, is controlled by the `-D' flag, as opposed to C
preprocessor directives.

   Making diagnostic messages available to users also means that the
phrasing of the diagnostic messages becomes important, too.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Don't Trust the File System Contents,  Next: Debugging is For Users Too,  Prev: The File System Is Being Modified,  Up: Coding Conventions

4.4 Don't Trust the File System Contents
========================================

People use `find' to search in directories created by other people.
Sometimes they do this to check to suspicious activity (for example to
look for new setuid binaries).  This means that it would be bad if
`find' were vulnerable to, say, a security problem exploitable by
constructing a specially-crafted filename.  The same consideration
would apply to `locate' and `updatedb'.

   Henry Spencer said this well in his fifth commandment:

     Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all
     arrays), for surely where thou typest `foo' someone someday shall
     type `supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'.

   Symbolic links can often be a problem.  If `find' calls `lstat' on
something and discovers that it is a directory, it's normal for `find'
to recurse into it.  Even if the `chdir' system call is used
immediately, there is still a window of opportunity between the `lstat'
and the `chdir' in which a malicious person could rename the directory
and substitute a symbolic link to some other directory.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: The File System Is Being Modified,  Next: Don't Trust the File System Contents,  Prev: Make the Compiler Find the Bugs,  Up: Coding Conventions

4.5 The File System Is Being Modified
=====================================

The filesystem gets modified while you are traversing it.  For,
example, it's normal for files to get deleted while `find' is
traversing a directory.  Issuing an error message seems helpful when a
file is deleted from the one directory you are interested in, but if
`find' is searching 15000 directories, such a message becomes less
helpful.

   Bear in mind also that it is possible for the directory `find' is
currently searching could be moved to another point in the filesystem,
and that the directory in which `find' was started could be deleted.

   Henry Spencer's sixth commandment is also apposite here:

     If a function be advertised to return an error code in the event of
     difficulties, thou shalt check for that code, yea, even though the
     checks triple the size of thy code and produce aches in thy typing
     fingers, for if thou thinkest "it cannot happen to me", the gods
     shall surely punish thee for thy arrogance.

   There are a lot of files out there.  They come in all dates and
sizes.  There is a condition out there in the real world to exercise
every bit of the code base.  So we try to test that code base before
someone falls over a bug.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Tools,  Next: Using the GNU Portability Library,  Prev: Coding Conventions,  Up: Top

5 Tools
*******

Most of the tools required to build findutils are mentioned in the file
`README-CVS'.  We also use some other tools:

System call traces
     Much of the execution time of find is spent waiting for filesystem
     operations.  A system call trace (for example, that provided by
     `strace') shows what system calls are being made.   Using this
     information we can work to remove unnecessary file system
     operations.

Valgrind
     Valgrind is a tool which dynamically verifies the memory accesses a
     program makes to ensure that they are valid (for example, that the
     behaviour of the program does not in any way depend on the
     contents of uninitialised memory).

DejaGnu
     DejaGnu is the test framework used to run the findutils test suite
     (the `runtest' program is part of DejaGnu).  It would be ideal if
     everybody building `findutils' also ran the test suite, but many
     people don't have DejaGnu installed.  When changes are made to
     findutils, DejaGnu is invoked a lot. *Note Testing::, for more
     information.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Using the GNU Portability Library,  Next: Documentation,  Prev: Tools,  Up: Top

6 Using the GNU Portability Library
***********************************

The Gnulib library (`http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/') makes a
variety of systems look more like a GNU/Linux system and also applies a
bunch of automatic bug fixes and workarounds.  Some of these also apply
to GNU/Linux systems too.  For example, the Gnulib regex implementation
is used when we determine that we are building on a GNU libc system
with a bug in the regex implementation.

6.1 How and Why we Import the Gnulib Code
=========================================

Gnulib does not have a release process which results in a source
tarball you can download.  Instead, the code is simply made available
by GIT.   The code is also available via `git-cvspserver', but we
decided not to use this, since `import-gnulib.sh' depended on `cvs
update -D', which at the time `git-cvspserver' did not support.

   GNU projects vary in how they interact with Gnulib.  Many import a
selection of code from Gnulib into the working directory and then check
the updated files into the CVS repository for their project.  The
coreutils project does this, for example.

   At the last maintainer changeover for findutils (2003) it turned out
that there was a lot of material in findutils in common with Gnulib,
but it had not been updated in a long time.  It was difficult to figure
out which source files were intended to track external sources and
which were intended to contain incompatible changes, or diverge for
other reasons.

   To reduce this uncertainty, I decided to treat Gnulib much like
Automake.  Files supplied by Automake are simply absent from the
findutils source tree.  When Automake is run with `automake
--add-missing --copy', it adds in all the files it thinks should be
there which aren't there already.

   An analogous approach is taken with Gnulib.  The Gnulib code is
imported from the CVS repository for Gnulib with a findutils helper
script, `import-gnulib.sh'.  That script fetches a copy of the Gnulib
code into the subdirectory `gnulib-git' and then runs `gnulib-tool'.
The `gnulib-tool' program copies the required parts of Gnulib into the
findutils source tree in the subdirectory `gnulib'.  This process gives
us the property that the code in `gnulib' and `gnulib-git' is not
included in the findutils CVS tree.   Both directories are listed in
`.cvsignore' and so CVS ignores them.

   Findutils does not use all the Gnulib code.  The modules we need are
listed in the file `import-gnulib.config'.  The same file also
indicates the version of Gnulib that we want to use.  Since Gnulib has
no actual release process, we just use a date.  Both `import-gnulib.sh'
and `import-gnulib.config' are in the findutils CVS repository.

   The upshot of all this is that we can use the findutils CVS
repository to track which version of Gnulib every findutils release
uses.  That information is also provided when the user invokes a
findutils program with the `--version' option.  It also means that if a
file exists in the Findutils CVS repository, you can be certain that
the file exists in the CVS repository and is different from a similar
file elsewhere, it's for a reason.

   There are a small number of exceptions to this; the standard
boiler-plate GNU files such as `ABOUT-NLS', `INSTALL' and `COPYING'.

6.2 How We Fix Gnulib Bugs
==========================

If we always directly import the Gnulib code directly from the CVS
repository in this way, it is impossible to maintain a locally
different copy of Gnulib.  This is often a benefit in that accidental
version skew is prevented.

   However, sometimes we want deliberate version skew in order to use a
findutils-specific patched version of a Gnulib file, for example
because we fixed a bug.

   Gnulib is used by quite a number of GNU projects, and this means that
it gets plenty of testing.  Therefore there are relatively few bugs in
the Gnulib code, but it does happen from time to time.

   However, since there is no waiting around for a Gnulib source release
tarball, Gnulib bugs are generally fixed quickly.  Here is an outline
of the way we would contribute a fix to Gnulib (assuming you know it is
not already fixed in current Gnulib CVS):

Check you already completed a copyright assignment for Gnulib

Begin with a vanilla CVS tree
     Download the Findutils source code from CVS (or use the tree you
     have already)

Check out a copy of the Gnulib source
     Check out a copy of the Gnulib source tree.  The
     `import-gnulib.sh' script may have generated a shallow git clone
     as opposed to a normal, full clone in the directory `gnulib-git'.
     This means that you may not be able to clone the repository that
     `import-gnulib.sh' generates.  However, you can make a normal
     (full) clone with `git clone
     git_repo="git://git.savannah.gnu.org/gnulib.git"'.  Do this
     somewhere outside the findutils source tree.

Import Gnulib from your local copy
     The `import-gnulib.sh' tool has a `-d' option which you can use to
     import the code from a local copy of Gnulib.

Build findutils
     Build findutils and run the test suite, which should pass.  In our
     example we assume you have just noticed a bug in Gnulib, not that
     recent Gnulib changes broke the findutils regression tests.

Write a test case
     If in fact Gnulib did break the findutils regression tests, you
     can probably skip this step, since you already have a test case
     demonstrating the problem.  Otherwise, write a findutils test case
     for the bug and/or a Gnulib test case.

Fix the Gnulib bug
     Make sure your editor follows symbolic links so that your changes
     to `gnulib/...' actually affect the files in the CVS working
     directory you checked out earlier.   Observe that your test now
     passes.

Prepare a Gnulib patch
     Use `cvs -z3 diff -upN' to prepare the patch.  Write a ChangeLog
     entry and prepend this to the patch.  Check that the patch conforms
     with the GNU coding standards, and email it to the Gnulib mailing
     list.

Wait for the patch to be applied
     Once your bug fix has been applied, you can update your local
     directory from git, re-import the code into Findutils (still using
     the `-d' option), and re-run the tests.  This verifies that the
     fix the Gnulib team made actually fixes your problem.

Reimport the Gnulib code
     Update the findutils file `import-gnulib.config' to specify git
     commit which is after the point at which the bug fix was committed
     to Gnulib.  You can do this with `git rev-parse HEAD'.  Finally,
     re-import the Gnulib code directly from git by using
     `import-gnulib.sh' without the `-d' option, and run the tests
     again.  This verifies that there was no remaining local change
     that we were relying on to fix the bug.   Make sure you checked
     everything in by running `git status'.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Documentation,  Next: Testing,  Prev: Using the GNU Portability Library,  Up: Top

7 Documentation
***************

The findutils CVS tree includes several different types of
documentation.

7.1 User Documentation
======================

User-oriented documentation is provided as manual pages and in Texinfo.
See *note Introduction: (find)Introduction.

   Please make sure both sets of documentation are updated if you make a
change to the code.  The GNU coding standards do not normally call for
maintaining manual pages on the grounds of effort duplication.
However, the manual page format is more convenient for quick reference,
and so it's worth maintaining both types of documentation.  However,
the manual pages are normally rather more terse than the Texinfo
documentation.  The manual pages are suitable for reference use, but
the Texinfo manual should also include introductory and tutorial
material.

7.2 Build Guidance
==================

`ABOUT-NLS'
     Describes the Free Translation Project, the translation status of
     various GNU projects, and how to participate by translating an
     application.

`AUTHORS'
     Lists the authors of findutils.

`COPYING'
     The copyright license covering findutils; currently, the GNU GPL,
     version 3.

`INSTALL'
     Generic installation instructions for installing GNU programs.

`README'
     Information about how to compile findutils in particular

`README-alpha'
     A README file which is included with testing releases of findutils.

`README-CVS'
     Describes how to build findutils from the code in CVS.

`THANKS'
     Thanks for people who contributed to findutils.  Generally, if
     someone's contribution was significant enough to need a copyright
     assignment, their name should go in here.

`TODO'
     Mainly obsolete.

7.3 Release Information
=======================

`NEWS'
     Enumerates the user-visible change in each release.  Typical
     changes are fixed bugs, functionality changes and documentation
     changes.  Include the date when a release is made.

`ChangeLog'
     This file enumerates all changes to the findutils source code (with
     the possible exception of `.cvsignore' and `.gitignore' changes).
     The level of detail used for this file should be sufficient to
     answer the questions "what changed?" and "why was it changed?".
     If a change fixes a bug, always give the bug reference number in
     both the `ChangeLog' and `NEWS' files and of course also in the
     checkin message.  In general, it should be possible to enumerate
     all material changes to a function by searching for its name in
     `ChangeLog'.  Mention when each release is made.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Testing,  Next: Bugs,  Prev: Documentation,  Up: Top

8 Testing
*********

This chapter will explain the general procedures for adding tests to
the test suite, and the functions defined in the findutils-specific
DejaGnu configuration.  Where appropriate references will be made to
the DejaGnu documentation.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Bugs,  Next: Distributions,  Prev: Testing,  Up: Top

9 Bugs
******

Bugs are logged in the Savannah bug tracker
`http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils'.  The tracker offers
several fields but their use is largely obvious.  The life-cycle of a
bug is like this:

Open
     Someone, usually a maintainer, a distribution maintainer or a user,
     creates a bug by filling in the form.   They fill in field values
     as they see fit.  This will generate an email to
     <bug-findutils@gnu.org>.

Triage
     The bug hangs around with `Status=None' until someone begins to
     work on it.  At that point they set the "Assigned To" field and
     will sometimes set the status to `In Progress', especially if the
     bug will take a while to fix.

Non-bugs
     Quite a lot of reports are not actually bugs; for these the usual
     procedure is to explain why the problem is not a bug, set the
     status to `Invalid' and close the bug.   Make sure you set the
     `Assigned to' field to yourself before closing the bug.

Fixing
     When you commit a bug fix into CVS (or in the case of a contributed
     patch, commit the change), mark the bug as `Fixed'.  Make sure you
     include a new test case where this is relevant.  If you can figure
     out which releases are affected, please also set the `Release'
     field to the earliest release which is affected by the bug.
     Indicate which source branch the fix is included in (for example,
     4.2.x or 4.3.x).  Don't close the bug yet.

Release
     When a release is made which includes the bug fix, make sure the
     bug is listed in the NEWS file.  Once the release is made, fill in
     the `Fixed Release' field and close the bug.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Distributions,  Next: Internationalisation,  Prev: Bugs,  Up: Top

10 Distributions
****************

Almost all GNU/Linux distributions include findutils, but only some of
them have a package maintainer who is a member of the mailing list.
Distributions don't often feed back patches to the
<bug-findutils@gnu.org> list, but on the other hand many of their
patches relate only to standards for file locations and so forth, and
are therefore distribution specific.  On an irregular basis I check the
current patches being used by one or two distributions, but the total
number of GNU/Linux distributions is large enough that we could not
hope to cover them all.

   Often, bugs are raised against a distribution's bug tracker instead
of GNU's.    Periodically (about every six months) I take a look at some
of the more accessible bug trackers to indicate which bugs have been
fixed upstream.

   Many distributions include both findutils and the slocate package,
which provides a replacement `locate'.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Internationalisation,  Next: Security,  Prev: Distributions,  Up: Top

11 Internationalisation
***********************

Translation is essentially automated from the maintainer's point of
view.  The TP mails the maintainer when a new PO file is available, and
we just download it and check it in.  We copy the `.po' files into the
CVS repository.  For more information, please see
`http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/translation/HTML/domain-findutils.html'.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Security,  Next: Making Releases,  Prev: Internationalisation,  Up: Top

12 Security
***********

See *note Security Considerations: (find)Security Considerations, for a
full description of the findutils approach to security considerations
and discussion of particular tools.

   If someone reports a security bug publicly, we should fix this as
rapidly as possible.  If necessary, this can mean issuing a fixed
release containing just the one bug fix.  We try to avoid issuing
releases which include both significant security fixes and functional
changes.

   Where someone reports a security problem privately, we generally try
to construct and test a patch without checking the intermediate code
in.  Once everything has been tested, this allows us to commit a patch
and immediately make a release.   The advantage of doing things this
way is that we avoid situations where people watching for CVS commits
can figure out and exploit a security problem before a fixed release is
available.

   It's important that security problems be fixed promptly, but don't
rush so much that things go wrong.  Make sure the new release really
fixes the problem.  It's usually best not to include functional changes
in your security-fix release.

   If the security problem is serious, send an alert to
<vendor-sec@lst.de>.  The members of the list include most GNU/Linux
distributions.  The point of doing this is to allow them to prepare to
release your security fix to their customers, once the fix becomes
available.    Here is an example alert:-

     GNU findutils heap buffer overrun (potential privilege escalation)

     $Revision: 1.6 $; $Date: 2008/03/08 21:38:25 $


     I. BACKGROUND
     =============

     GNU findutils is a set of programs which search for files on Unix-like
     systems.  It is maintained by the GNU Project of the Free Software
     Foundation.  For more information, see
     `http://www.gnu.org/software/findutils'.


     II. DESCRIPTION
     ===============

     When GNU locate reads filenames from an old-format locate database,
     they are read into a fixed-length buffer allocated on the heap.
     Filenames longer than the 1026-byte buffer can cause a buffer overrun.
     The overrunning data can be chosen by any person able to control the
     names of filenames created on the local system.  This will normally
     include all local users, but in many cases also remote users (for
     example in the case of FTP servers allowing uploads).

     III. ANALYSIS
     =============

     Findutils supports three different formats of locate database, its
     native format "LOCATE02", the slocate variant of LOCATE02, and a
     traditional ("old") format that locate uses on other Unix systems.

     When locate reads filenames from a LOCATE02 database (the default
     format), the buffer into which data is read is automatically extended
     to accomodate the length of the filenames.

     This automatic buffer extension does not happen for old-format
     databases.  Instead a 1026-byte buffer is used.  When a longer
     pathname appears in the locate database, the end of this buffer is
     overrun.  The buffer is allocated on the heap (not the stack).

     If the locate database is in the default LOCATE02 format, the locate
     program does perform automatic buffer extension, and the program is
     not vulnerable to this problem.  The software used to build the
     old-format locate database is not itself vulnerable to the same
     attack.

     Most installations of GNU findutils do not use the old database
     format, and so will not be vulnerable.


     IV. DETECTION
     =============

     Software
     --------
     All existing releases of findutils are affected.


     Installations
     -------------

     To discover the longest path name on a given system, you can use the
     following command (requires GNU findutils and GNU coreutils):


     find / -print0 | tr -c '\0' 'x' | tr '\0' '\n' | wc -L


     V. EXAMPLE
     ==========

     This section includes a shell script which determines which of a list
     of locate binaries is vulnerable to the problem.  The shell script has
     been tested only on glibc based systems having a mktemp binary.

     NOTE: This script deliberately overruns the buffer in order to
     determine if a binary is affected.  Therefore running it on your
     system may have undesirable effects.  We recommend that you read the
     script before running it.


     #! /bin/sh
     set +m
     if vanilla_db="$(mktemp nicedb.XXXXXX)" ; then
         if updatedb --prunepaths="" --old-format --localpaths="/tmp" \
     	--output="$@{vanilla_db@}" ; then
     	true
         else
     	rm -f "$@{vanilla_db@}"
     	vanilla_db=""
     	echo "Failed to create old-format locate database; skipping the sanity checks" >&2
         fi
     fi

     make_overrun_db() @{
         # Start with a valid database
         cat "$@{vanilla_db@}"
         # Make the final entry really long
         dd if=/dev/zero  bs=1 count=1500 2>/dev/null | tr '\000' 'x'
     @}



     ulimit -c 0

     usage() @{ echo "usage: $0 binary [binary...]" >&2; exit $1; @}
     [ $# -eq 0 ] && usage 1

     bad=""
     good=""
     ugly=""
     if dbfile="$(mktemp nasty.XXXXXX)"
     then
         make_overrun_db > "$dbfile"
         for locate ; do
           ver="$locate = $("$locate"  --version | head -1)"
           if [ -z "$vanilla_db" ] || "$locate" -d "$vanilla_db" "" >/dev/null ; then
     	  "$locate" -d "$dbfile" "" >/dev/null
     	  if [ $? -gt 128 ] ; then
     	      bad="$bad
     vulnerable: $ver"
     	  else
     	      good="$good
     good: $ver"
     	  fi
            else
     	  # the regular locate failed
     	  ugly="$ugly
     buggy, may or may not be vulnerable: $ver"
            fi
         done
         rm -f "$@{dbfile@}" "$@{vanilla_db@}"
         # good: unaffected.  bad: affected (vulnerable).
         # ugly: doesn't even work for a normal old-format database.
         echo "$good"
         echo "$bad"
         echo "$ugly"
     else
       exit 1
     fi





     VI. VENDOR RESPONSE
     ===================

     The GNU project discovered the problem while 'locate' was being worked
     on; this is the first public announcement of the problem.

     The GNU findutils mantainer has issued a patch as p[art of this
     announcement.  The patch appears below.

     A source release of findutils-4.2.31 will be issued on 2007-05-30.
     That release will of course include the patch.  The patch will be
     committed to the public CVS repository at the same time.  Public
     announcements of the release, including a description of the bug, will
     be made at the same time as the release.

     A release of findutils-4.3.x will follow and will also include the
     patch.


     VII. PATCH
     ==========

     This patch should apply to findutils-4.2.23 and later.
     Findutils-4.2.23 was released almost two years ago.

     Index: locate/locate.c
     ===================================================================
     RCS file: /cvsroot/findutils/findutils/locate/locate.c,v
     retrieving revision 1.58.2.2
     diff -u -p -r1.58.2.2 locate.c
     --- locate/locate.c	22 Apr 2007 16:57:42 -0000	1.58.2.2
     +++ locate/locate.c	28 May 2007 10:18:16 -0000
     @@@@ -124,9 +124,9 @@@@ extern int errno;

      #include "locatedb.h"
      #include <getline.h>
     -#include "../gnulib/lib/xalloc.h"
     -#include "../gnulib/lib/error.h"
     -#include "../gnulib/lib/human.h"
     +#include "xalloc.h"
     +#include "error.h"
     +#include "human.h"
      #include "dirname.h"
      #include "closeout.h"
      #include "nextelem.h"
     @@@@ -468,10 +468,36 @@@@ visit_justprint_unquoted(struct process_
        return VISIT_CONTINUE;
      @}

     +static void
     +toolong (struct process_data *procdata)
     +@{
     +  error (1, 0,
     +	 _("locate database %s contains a "
     +	   "filename longer than locate can handle"),
     +	 procdata->dbfile);
     +@}
     +
     +static void
     +extend (struct process_data *procdata, size_t siz1, size_t siz2)
     +@{
     +  /* Figure out if the addition operation is safe before performing it. */
     +  if (SIZE_MAX - siz1 < siz2)
     +    @{
     +      toolong (procdata);
     +    @}
     +  else if (procdata->pathsize < (siz1+siz2))
     +    @{
     +      procdata->pathsize = siz1+siz2;
     +      procdata->original_filename = x2nrealloc (procdata->original_filename,
     +						&procdata->pathsize,
     +						1);
     +    @}
     +@}
     +
      static int
      visit_old_format(struct process_data *procdata, void *context)
      @{
     -  register char *s;
     +  register size_t i;
        (void) context;

        /* Get the offset in the path where this path info starts.  */
     @@@@ -479,20 +505,35 @@@@ visit_old_format(struct process_data *pr
          procdata->count += getw (procdata->fp) - LOCATEDB_OLD_OFFSET;
        else
          procdata->count += procdata->c - LOCATEDB_OLD_OFFSET;
     +  assert(procdata->count > 0);

     -  /* Overlay the old path with the remainder of the new.  */
     -  for (s = procdata->original_filename + procdata->count;
     +  /* Overlay the old path with the remainder of the new.  Read
     +   * more data until we get to the next filename.
     +   */
     +  for (i=procdata->count;
             (procdata->c = getc (procdata->fp)) > LOCATEDB_OLD_ESCAPE;)
     -    if (procdata->c < 0200)
     -      *s++ = procdata->c;		/* An ordinary character.  */
     -    else
     -      @{
     -	/* Bigram markers have the high bit set. */
     -	procdata->c &= 0177;
     -	*s++ = procdata->bigram1[procdata->c];
     -	*s++ = procdata->bigram2[procdata->c];
     -      @}
     -  *s-- = '\0';
     +    @{
     +      if (procdata->c < 0200)
     +	@{
     +	  /* An ordinary character. */
     +	  extend (procdata, i, 1u);
     +	  procdata->original_filename[i++] = procdata->c;
     +	@}
     +      else
     +	@{
     +	  /* Bigram markers have the high bit set. */
     +	  extend (procdata, i, 2u);
     +	  procdata->c &= 0177;
     +	  procdata->original_filename[i++] = procdata->bigram1[procdata->c];
     +	  procdata->original_filename[i++] = procdata->bigram2[procdata->c];
     +	@}
     +    @}
     +
     +  /* Consider the case where we executed the loop body zero times; we
     +   * still need space for the terminating null byte.
     +   */
     +  extend (procdata, i, 1u);
     +  procdata->original_filename[i] = 0;

        procdata->munged_filename = procdata->original_filename;



     VIII. THANKS
     ============

     Thanks to Rob Holland <rob@inversepath.com> and Tavis Ormandy.


     VIII. CVE INFORMATION
     =====================

     No CVE candidate number has yet been assigned for this vulnerability.
     If someone provides one, I will include it in the public announcement
     and change logs.

   The original announcement above was sent out with a cleartext PGP
signature, of course, but that has been omitted from the example.

   Once a fixed release is available, announce the new release using the
normal channels.  Any CVE number assigned for the problem should be
included in the `ChangeLog' and `NEWS' entries. See
`http://cve.mitre.org/' for an explanation of CVE numbers.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: Making Releases,  Next: GNU Free Documentation License,  Prev: Security,  Up: Top

13 Making Releases
******************

This section will explain how to make a findutils release.   For the
time being here is a terse description of the main steps:

  1. Commit changes; make sure your working directory has no
     uncommitted changes.

  2. Test; make sure that all changes you have made have tests, and
     that the tests pass.  Verify this with `make distcheck'.

  3. Bugs; make sure all Savannah bug entries fixed in this release are
     fixed.

  4. NEWS; make sure that the NEWS and configure.in file are updated
     with the new release number (and checked in).

  5. Build the release tarball; do this with `make distcheck'.  Copy
     the tarball somewhere safe.

  6. Tag the release; findutils releases are tagged in CVS as
     FINDUTILS_x_y_z-1.  For example, the tag for findutils release
     4.3.8 is FINDUTILS_4_3_8-1.

  7. Prepare the upload and upload it.  *Note Automated FTP Uploads:
     (maintain)Automated FTP Uploads, for detailed upload instructions.

  8. Make a release announcement; include an extract from the NEWS file
     which explains what's changed.  Announcements for test releases
     should just go to <bug-findutils@gnu.org>.  Announcements for
     stable releases should go to <info-gnu@gnu.org> as well.

  9. Bump the release numbers in CVS; edit the `configure.in' and
     `NEWS' files to advance the release numbers.   For example, if you
     have just released `4.6.2', bump the release number to
     `4.6.3-CVS'.  The point of the `-CVS' suffix here is that a
     findutils binary built from CVS will bear a release number
     indicating it's not built from the "official" source release.

 10. Close bugs; any bugs recorded on Savannah which were fixed in this
     release should now be marked as closed.   Update the `Fixed
     Release' field of these bugs appropriately and make sure the
     `Assigned to' field is populated.


File: find-maint.info,  Node: GNU Free Documentation License,  Prev: Making Releases,  Up: Top

Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License
*****************************************

                      Version 1.2, November 2002

     Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA

     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

  0. PREAMBLE

     The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
     functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to
     assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it,
     with or without modifying it, either commercially or
     noncommercially.  Secondarily, this License preserves for the
     author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not
     being considered responsible for modifications made by others.

     This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative
     works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense.
     It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
     license designed for free software.

     We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for
     free software, because free software needs free documentation: a
     free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms
     that the software does.  But this License is not limited to
     software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless
     of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book.
     We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is
     instruction or reference.

  1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

     This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium,
     that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it
     can be distributed under the terms of this License.  Such a notice
     grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration,
     to use that work under the conditions stated herein.  The
     "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work.  Any member
     of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you".  You
     accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a
     way requiring permission under copyright law.

     A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the
     Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
     modifications and/or translated into another language.

     A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section
     of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the
     publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall
     subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could
     fall directly within that overall subject.  (Thus, if the Document
     is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not
     explain any mathematics.)  The relationship could be a matter of
     historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or
     of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position
     regarding them.

     The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose
     titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in
     the notice that says that the Document is released under this
     License.  If a section does not fit the above definition of
     Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant.
     The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections.  If the Document
     does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.

     The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are
     listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice
     that says that the Document is released under this License.  A
     Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may
     be at most 25 words.

     A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
     represented in a format whose specification is available to the
     general public, that is suitable for revising the document
     straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images
     composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some
     widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to
     text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of
     formats suitable for input to text formatters.  A copy made in an
     otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of
     markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent
     modification by readers is not Transparent.  An image format is
     not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text.  A
     copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".

     Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
     ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format,
     SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and
     standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for
     human modification.  Examples of transparent image formats include
     PNG, XCF and JPG.  Opaque formats include proprietary formats that
     can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or
     XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally
     available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF
     produced by some word processors for output purposes only.

     The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
     plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the
     material this License requires to appear in the title page.  For
     works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title
     Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the
     work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

     A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document
     whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses
     following text that translates XYZ in another language.  (Here XYZ
     stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as
     "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".)
     To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when you modify the
     Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ" according
     to this definition.

     The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice
     which states that this License applies to the Document.  These
     Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in
     this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other
     implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and
     has no effect on the meaning of this License.

  2. VERBATIM COPYING

     You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
     commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
     copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License
     applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you
     add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License.  You
     may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading
     or further copying of the copies you make or distribute.  However,
     you may accept compensation in exchange for copies.  If you
     distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow
     the conditions in section 3.

     You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above,
     and you may publicly display copies.

  3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

     If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly
     have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and
     the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must
     enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
     these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and
     Back-Cover Texts on the back cover.  Both covers must also clearly
     and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies.  The
     front cover must present the full title with all words of the
     title equally prominent and visible.  You may add other material
     on the covers in addition.  Copying with changes limited to the
     covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and
     satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in
     other respects.

     If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
     legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
     reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto
     adjacent pages.

     If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document
     numbering more than 100, you must either include a
     machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or
     state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from
     which the general network-using public has access to download
     using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent
     copy of the Document, free of added material.  If you use the
     latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you
     begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that
     this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated
     location until at least one year after the last time you
     distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or
     retailers) of that edition to the public.

     It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of
     the Document well before redistributing any large number of
     copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated
     version of the Document.

  4. MODIFICATIONS

     You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document
     under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you
     release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with
     the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus
     licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to
     whoever possesses a copy of it.  In addition, you must do these
     things in the Modified Version:

       A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title
          distinct from that of the Document, and from those of
          previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed
          in the History section of the Document).  You may use the
          same title as a previous version if the original publisher of
          that version gives permission.

       B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
          entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in
          the Modified Version, together with at least five of the
          principal authors of the Document (all of its principal
          authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you
          from this requirement.

       C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
          Modified Version, as the publisher.

       D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

       E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
          adjacent to the other copyright notices.

       F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
          notice giving the public permission to use the Modified
          Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in
          the Addendum below.

       G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
          Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's
          license notice.

       H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

       I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title,
          and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new
          authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on
          the Title Page.  If there is no section Entitled "History" in
          the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors,
          and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page,
          then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in
          the previous sentence.

       J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document
          for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
          likewise the network locations given in the Document for
          previous versions it was based on.  These may be placed in
          the "History" section.  You may omit a network location for a
          work that was published at least four years before the
          Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version
          it refers to gives permission.

       K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
          Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the
          section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
          acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

       L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
          unaltered in their text and in their titles.  Section numbers
          or the equivalent are not considered part of the section
          titles.

       M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements".  Such a section
          may not be included in the Modified Version.

       N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled
          "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant
          Section.

       O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

     If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
     appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no
     material copied from the Document, you may at your option
     designate some or all of these sections as invariant.  To do this,
     add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified
     Version's license notice.  These titles must be distinct from any
     other section titles.

     You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
     nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
     parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text
     has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
     definition of a standard.

     You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text,
     and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end
     of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version.  Only one
     passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be
     added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity.  If the
     Document already includes a cover text for the same cover,
     previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity
     you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may
     replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous
     publisher that added the old one.

     The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this
     License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to
     assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

  5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

     You may combine the Document with other documents released under
     this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for
     modified versions, provided that you include in the combination
     all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents,
     unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your
     combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all
     their Warranty Disclaimers.

     The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
     multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
     copy.  If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name
     but different contents, make the title of each such section unique
     by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the
     original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a
     unique number.  Make the same adjustment to the section titles in
     the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the
     combined work.

     In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled
     "History" in the various original documents, forming one section
     Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled
     "Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications".  You
     must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements."

  6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

     You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other
     documents released under this License, and replace the individual
     copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
     that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the
     rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the
     documents in all other respects.

     You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
     distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert
     a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow
     this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of
     that document.

  7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

     A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other
     separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of
     a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the
     copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the
     legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual
     works permit.  When the Document is included in an aggregate, this
     License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which
     are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

     If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
     copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half
     of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed
     on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the
     electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic
     form.  Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket
     the whole aggregate.

  8. TRANSLATION

     Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
     distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section
     4.  Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
     permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
     translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
     original versions of these Invariant Sections.  You may include a
     translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
     Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also
     include the original English version of this License and the
     original versions of those notices and disclaimers.  In case of a
     disagreement between the translation and the original version of
     this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will
     prevail.

     If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",
     "Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to
     Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the
     actual title.

  9. TERMINATION

     You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
     except as expressly provided for under this License.  Any other
     attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is
     void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this
     License.  However, parties who have received copies, or rights,
     from you under this License will not have their licenses
     terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

 10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

     The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of
     the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time.  Such new
     versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
     differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.  See
     `http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/'.

     Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version
     number.  If the Document specifies that a particular numbered
     version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you
     have the option of following the terms and conditions either of
     that specified version or of any later version that has been
     published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.  If
     the Document does not specify a version number of this License,
     you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the
     Free Software Foundation.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
====================================================

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
the License in the document and put the following copyright and license
notices just after the title page:

       Copyright (C)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
       or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
       with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
       Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
       Free Documentation License''.

   If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover
Texts, replace the "with...Texts." line with this:

         with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with
         the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts
         being LIST.

   If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the
situation.

   If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of
free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to
permit their use in free software.



Tag Table:
Node: Top980
Node: Introduction2050
Node: Maintaining GNU Programs2799
Node: Design Issues3601
Node: Coding Conventions7020
Node: Make the Compiler Find the Bugs8987
Node: Factor Out Repeated Code12371
Node: Debugging is For Users Too14397
Node: Don't Trust the File System Contents15128
Node: The File System Is Being Modified16411
Node: Tools17848
Node: Using the GNU Portability Library19045
Node: Documentation26056
Node: Testing28770
Node: Bugs29111
Node: Distributions30855
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Node: Security32374
Node: Making Releases43770
Node: GNU Free Documentation License45795

End Tag Table