README.commits

GTK+ is part of the GNOME Subversion repository. At the current time, any
person with write access to the GNOME repository, can make changes to
GTK+. This is a good thing, in that it encourages many people to work
on GTK+, and progress can be made quickly. However, GTK+ is a fairly
large and complicated package that many other things depend on, so to
avoid unnecessary breakage, and to take advantage of the knowledge
about GTK+ that has been built up over the last 4 years, we'd like
to ask people commiting to GTK+ to follow a few rules:

0) Ask first. If your changes are major, or could possibly break existing
   code, you should always ask. If your change is minor and you've
   been working on GTK+ for a while it probably isn't necessary
   to ask. But when in doubt, ask. Even if your change is correct,
   somebody may know a better way to do things.

   If you are making changes to GTK+, you should be subscribed
   to gtk-devel-list@gnome.org. (Subscription address:  
   gtk-devel-list-request@gnome.org.) This is a good place to ask
   about intended changes. 

   #gtk+ on GIMPNet (irc.gimp.org, irc.us.gimp.org, irc.eu.gimp.org, ...)
   is also a good place to find GTK+ developers to discuss changes with,
   however, email to gtk-devel-list is the most certain and preferred
   method.

1) Ask _first_.

2) There must be a ChangeLog for every commit. (If you discover that
   you only committed half the files you meant to and need to fix that
   up, or something, you don't need a new ChangeLog entry. But in general,
   ChangeLog entries are mandatory.) Changes without ChangeLog entries
   will be reverted.

3) There _must_ be a ChangeLog for every commit.

Notes:

* If you are going to be changing many files in an experimental fashion,
  it probably is a good idea to create a separate branch for your changes.

* The ChangeLog entries should preferably match in date format
  with the existing entries. You can set how emacs does this
  by using customize mode:

  - M-x customize
  - set Programming/Tools/ChangeLog/Add Log Time Format to
    'Old Format'

 Or, set the add-log-time-format to 'current-time-string in
 your .emacs file.

Owen Taylor
13 Aug 1998
17 Apr 2001