1<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Getting Started Writing GNOME Documentation</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.40"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The GNOME Handbook of Writing Software Documentation"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="The GNOME Handbook of Writing Software Documentation"><link rel="previous" href="index.html" title="The GNOME Handbook of Writing Software Documentation"><link rel="next" href="indexs03.html" title="The GNOME Documentation System"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Getting Started Writing GNOME Documentation</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a href="index.html">Prev</a>�</td><th width="60%" align="center">�</th><td width="20%" align="right">�<a href="indexs03.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1"><a name="gettingstarted"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="gettingstarted"></a>Getting Started Writing GNOME Documentation</h2></div></div><div class="sect2"><a name="selecting"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h3 class="title"><a name="selecting"></a>Selecting A Document</h3></div></div><div class="sect3"><a name="know"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="know"></a>Document Something You Know</h4></div></div><p> 2 The most frequently asked question of new contributors who 3 join the GDP is "which document should I start 4 with?". Because most people involved are volunteers, we do 5 not <i>assign</i> projects and applications to 6 write documents for. The first step is all yours - you must 7 decide what about GNOME interests you most and find out if 8 it has complete documents or not. 9 </p><p> 10 It is also important to spend some time with GNOME to make 11 sure you are familiar enough with it to be 12 <i>authoritative</i> in your writing. The 13 best way to do this is to just sit down and play with GNOME 14 as much as possible before starting to write. 15 </p><p> 16 The easiest way to get started is to improve existing 17 documentation. If you notice some inaccuracies or omissions 18 in the documentation, or you think that you can explain the 19 material more clearly, just send your suggestions to the 20 author of the original documentation or to the GNOME 21 documentation project at <tt><<a href="mailto:docs@gnome.org">docs@gnome.org</a>></tt>. 22 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="doctable"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="doctable"></a>The GNOME Documentation Status Table</h4></div></div><p> 23 The <i>GDP Documentation Status Table</i> 24 (<i>DocTable</i>) (<a href="http://www.gnome.org/gdp/doctable/" target="_top">http://www.gnome.org/gdp/doctable/</a>) is a 25 web page which tracks the status of all the various 26 documentation components of GNOME. These components include 27 application documentation, internal GNOME component 28 documentation, user documentation, and developer 29 documentation. For each documentation item, it tracks the 30 current status of the documentation, who is working on the 31 particular document, where the documentation can be found, 32 and provides a forum for the discussion of each item. 33 </p><p> 34 You should use the <i>DocTable</i> to help 35 you select a documentation item which needs work done. Once 36 you have selected an item to work on, please register 37 yourself as an author so that other authors do not duplicate 38 your work and may contact you to help or offer suggestions. 39 Also be sure to keep the status icons up-to-date so that 40 the GDP team can easily identify which items need additional 41 help. The <i>DocTable</i> also allows 42 people to make announcements and suggestions and to discuss 43 issues in the comments section. 44 </p><div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"><h3 class="title"><a name="id2810555"></a>Note</h3><p> 45 Note that the information in the 46 <i>DocTable</i> may not always be up-to-date 47 or accurate. When you assign yourself to documenting an 48 application, make sure you find out the latest status of 49 documentation by contacting the application author. 50 </p></div></div></div><div class="sect2"><a name="docbook"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h3 class="title"><a name="docbook"></a>Installing and Using DocBook</h3></div></div><p> 51 All documentation for the GNOME project is written in SGML 52 using the DocBook DTD. There are many advantages to using 53 this for documentation, not least of which is the single 54 source nature of SGML. To contribute to the GDP you should 55 learn to use DocBook. 56 </p><div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"><h3 class="title"><a name="id2810638"></a>NOTE</h3><p> 57 To get started writing for the GDP you do not need to rush 58 out and learn DocBook - if you feel it is too much to handle 59 for now, you can submit plain ASCII text to the <a href="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-doc-list/" target="_top"> 60 <i>gnome-doc-list mailing list</i> 61 </a>and a volunteer will mark it up for you. Seeing your 62 document marked up will also be a great way for you to start 63 learning DocBook. 64 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="installingdocbook"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="installingdocbook"></a>Installing DocBook</h4></div></div><p> 65 Download and install the following <a href="ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com:/pub/docbook-tools/" target="_top">DocBook Tools packages</a>: jade, docbook, 66 jadetex, sgml-common, and stylesheets. (RPM users should note 67 that jade is platform dependent (eg. i386), while the other packages 68 are in the <tt>noarch</tt> 69 directory.) You can find more 70 information on DocBook Tools <a href="http://sourceware.cygnus.com/docbook-tools/" target="_top">here</a>. 71 </p><p> 72 If you are an Emacs user you may 73 want to grab the psgml package as well. This is a major mode 74 for editing sgml files in Emacs. 75 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="gdpstylesheets"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="gdpstylesheets"></a>GDP Stylesheets</h4></div></div><p> 76 The GDP uses its own DocBook stylesheets. To use the GDP 77 stylesheets, you should download the file 78 <tt>gdp-both.dsl</tt> from the <tt>gnome-docu/gdp/dsssl</tt> module in 79 CVS (or from <a href="http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gdp/stylesheets.html" target="_top"> 80 GDP Custom DSSSL Stylesheet</a>)and copy it 81 82 over the file 83 <tt>/usr/lib/sgml/stylesheets/cygnus-both.dsl</tt>. 84 Alternately, you can download and install the 85 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/dcm/software.html" target="_top">gnome-doc-tools package</a> which will set 86 up the stylesheets as well as the DTD discussed below. 87 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="gdpdtd"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="gdpdtd"></a>GDP DTD (PNG Image Support)</h4></div></div><p> 88 Due to some license issues involved with the creation of 89 gifs, the GNOME Documentation Project has decided to use the 90 PNG image format for all images in GNOME documentation. You 91 can read more about the issues involved with gifs at <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html" target="_top">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html</a>. 92 </p><p> 93 The current DocBook DTD(3.1) does not include support for 94 embedding PNG images in your documents. Since the GDP uses 95 many screenshots in its documentation, we use our own 96 variation on the DocBook DTD which has PNG image support. 97 We encourage everybody to use this DTD instead of the 98 default DocBook DTD since your source document header and 99 your output document appearance subtly vary between the two 100 DTD's. To install the GDP custom DTD with PNG image support 101 by hand: 102 </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul><li style="list-style-type: opencircle"><p><a name="id2811052"></a> 103 Download <a href="http://www.labs.redhat.com/png/png-support.html" target="_top">the 104 GDP DocBook DTD for PNG support</a> and install it 105 where you keep your DTD's. (On Red Hat use <tt>/usr/lib/sgml/</tt>.) Note that 106 the 3.0 DTD is missing support for the 107 <tt><legalnotice></tt> tag, so it is 108 recommended that you use version 3.1 109 </p></li><li style="list-style-type: disc"><p><a name="id2811114"></a> 110 Add the new DTD to your SGML CATALOG file. The location 111 of your SGML CATALOG file may vary depending upon your 112 distribution. (On Red Hat it is usually in 113 /usr/lib/sgml/CATALOG.) Add the following line to this 114 file: 115 <pre class="programlisting"> 116PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant V1.0//EN" "png-support-3.0.dtd" 117 </pre> 118 If you are using the 3.1 DTD, use: 119 <pre class="programlisting"> 120PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant V1.1//EN" "png-support-3.1.dtd" 121 </pre> 122 </p></li></ul></div><p> 123 Alternately, you can download and install the 124 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/dcm/software.html" target="_top">gnome-doc-tools package</a> which will set 125 up the custom stylesheets and DTD for you. 126 </p><p> 127 To include PNG files in your documents, you will need to 128 indicate that you are using this special DTD. To do 129 this, use the following headers: 130 </p><p> 131 Articles: 132 <pre class="programlisting"> 133<!DOCTYPE Article PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant 134V1.1//EN"[]> 135 </pre> 136 </p><p> 137 Books: 138 <pre class="programlisting"> 139<!DOCTYPE Book PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant 140V1.1//EN"[]> 141 </pre> 142 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="editors"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="editors"></a>Editors</h4></div></div><p> 143 There are many editors on Linux and UNIX systems available 144 to you. Which editor you use to work on the sgml documents 145 is completely up to you, as long as the editor is able to 146 preserve sgml and produce the source in a format that is 147 readable by everyone. 148 </p><p> 149 Probably the two most popular editors available are 150 Emacs and 151 vi. These and other editors are 152 used regularly by members of the GDP. Emacs has a major 153 mode, psgml, for editing sgml files which can save you time 154 and effort in adding and closing tags. You will find the 155 psgml package in DocBook Tools, which is the standard set of 156 tools for the GDP. You may find out more about DocBook Tools 157 in <a href="indexs02.html#installingdocbook" title="Installing DocBook">the section called “Installing DocBook”</a>. 158 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="make-output"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="make-output"></a>Creating Something Useful with your Docs</h4></div></div><p> 159 The tools available in DocBook Tools allow you to convert 160 your sgml document to many different formats including html 161 and Postscript. The primary tool used to do the conversion 162 is an application called Jade. In 163 most cases you will not have to work directly with 164 Jade; Instead, you will use the 165 scripts provided by DocBook Tools. 166 </p><p> 167 To preview your DocBook document, it is easiest to convert 168 it to <tt>html</tt>. If you have installed the 169 DocBook tools described above, all you have to do is to run 170 the command <tt>$</tt><b>db2html 171 mydocument.sgml</b>. If there are no sgml syntax 172 errors, this will create a directory <tt>mydocument</tt> and place the 173 resulting html files in it. The title page of the document 174 will typically be 175 <tt>mydocument/index.html</tt>. If you have 176 screenshots in your document, you will have to copy these 177 files into the <tt>mydocument</tt> directory by 178 hand. You can use any web browser to view your document. 179 Note that every time you run <b>db2html</b>, it 180 creates the <tt>mydocument</tt> directory over, so 181 you will have to copy the screenshots over each time. 182 </p><p> 183 You can also convert your document to PostScript by running 184 the command <tt>$</tt><b>db2ps 185 mydocument.sgml</b>, after which you can print out or 186 view the resulting .ps file. 187 </p><div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"><h3 class="title"><a name="id2811592"></a>NOTE</h3><p> 188 The html files you get will not look quite the same as the 189 documentation distributed with GNOME unless you have the 190 custom stylesheets installed on your machine. DocBook 191 Tools' default stylesheets will produce a different look 192 to your docs. You can read more about the GDP stylesheets 193 in <a href="indexs02.html#gdpstylesheets" title="GDP Stylesheets">the section called “GDP Stylesheets”</a>. 194 </p></div></div><div class="sect3"><a name="jadeimages"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="jadeimages"></a>Images in DocBook Tools</h4></div></div><p> 195 If your document uses images you will need to take note of a 196 few things that should take place in order for you to make 197 use of those images in your output. 198 </p><p> 199 The DocBook Tools scripts and applications are smart enough 200 to know that when you are creating html you will be using 201 PNG files and when you are creating Postscript you will be 202 using EPS files (you must use EPS with Postscript). 203 </p><p> 204 Thus, you should never explicitly 205 include the extension of the image file, since DocBook 206 Tools will automatically insert it for you. For example: 207 </p><pre class="programlisting"> 208 209<figure> 210 <title>My Image</title> 211 <screenshot> 212 <screeninfo>Sample GNOME Display</screeninfo> 213 <graphic format="png" fileref="myfile" srccredit="me"> 214 </graphic> 215 </screenshot> 216</figure> 217 </pre><p> 218 You will notice in this example that the file 219 <tt>myfile.png</tt> was referred to as simply 220 <tt>myfile</tt>. Now when you run 221 <b>db2html</b> to create an html file, it will 222 automatically look for <tt>myfile.png</tt> in 223 the directory. 224 </p><p> 225 If you want to create PostScript ouput, you will need to create an 226 EPS version of your image file to be displayed in the 227 PostScript file. There is a simple script available which 228 allows you to change a PNG image into an EPS file 229 easily. You can download this file - img2eps - from <a href="http://people.redhat.com/dcm/sgml.html" target="_top">http://people.redhat.com/dcm/sgml.html</a> 230 (look for the img2eps section). Note that this script is 231 included in the gnome-doc-tools package, so if you are using 232 this package, you should already have 233 <b>img2eps</b> on you system. 234 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="moredocbookinfo"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="moredocbookinfo"></a>Learning DocBook</h4></div></div><p> 235 There are many resources available to help you learn DocBook. 236 The following resources on the web are useful for learning 237 DocBook: 238 </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul><li style="list-style-type: disc"><p><a name="id2933577"></a> 239 <a href="http://www.docbook.org" target="_top">http://www.docbook.org</a> - Norman 240 Walsh's <i>DocBook: The Definitive 241 Guide</i>. Online O'Reilly book on using 242 DocBook. Contains an excellent element reference. May be 243 too formal for a beginner. 244 </p></li><li style="list-style-type: disc"><p><a name="id2933624"></a> 245 <a href="http://www.oswg.org/oswg-nightly/oswg/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/DocBook-Intro/docbook-intro/index.html" target="_top">A Practical Introduction to DocBook</a> 246 - The Open Source Writers Group's introduction to using 247 DocBook. This is an excellent HOW-TO type article on 248 getting started. 249 </p></li><li style="list-style-type: disc"><p><a name="id2933666"></a> 250 <a href="http://nis-www.lanl.gov/~rosalia/mydocs/docbook-intro/docbook-intro.html" target="_top">Getting Going with DocBook: Notes for 251 Hackers</a> - Mark Galassi's introduction to DocBook 252 for hackers. This has to be one of the first 253 introductions to DocBook ever - still as good as it ever 254 was. 255 </p></li><li style="list-style-type: disc"><p><a name="id2933704"></a> 256 <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/tutorials/docproj-primer/" target="_top"> 257 FreeBSD Documentation Project Primer for New 258 Contributors</a> - FreeBSD documentation project 259 primer. Chapter 4.2 provides a very good introduction to 260 writing documentation using DocBook. Note that it also 261 describes some custom extensions of DocBook; 262 fortunately, they are clearly marked as such. 263 </p></li></ul></div><p> 264 Norman Walsh's book is also available in print. 265 </p><p> 266 The following sections of this document are designed to help 267 documentation authors write correct and consistent DocBook: 268 </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul><li style="list-style-type: disc"><p><a name="id2933779"></a> 269 <a href="indexs04.html" title="DocBook Basics ">the section called “DocBook Basics ”</a> - Descriptions of 270 commonly used DocBook tags. 271 </p></li></ul></div><p> 272 You may also discuss specific DocBook questions with GDP 273 members on the #docs IRC channel at irc.gnome.org and on the 274 gnome-doc-list mailing list. 275 </p></div></div><div class="sect2"><a name="gdptemplates"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h3 class="title"><a name="gdptemplates"></a>GDP Document Templates</h3></div></div><p> 276 Templates for various types of GNOME documents are found in 277 <a href="apa.html" title="A. Document Templates">Appendix A. Document Templates</a>. They are kept in CVS in 278 gnome-docu/gdp/templates. The easiest source to get them from 279 is probably the <a href="http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gdp/templates.html" target="_top">GDP 280 Document Templates</a> web page, which is typically kept 281 completely up-to-date with CVS and has a basic description of 282 each file from CVS. 283 </p></div><div class="sect2"><a name="screenshots"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h3 class="title"><a name="screenshots"></a>Screenshots</h3></div></div><p> 284 Most GNOME documents will have screenshots of the particular 285 applet, application, GNOME component, or widget being 286 discussed. As discussed above in <a href="indexs02.html#gdpdtd" title="GDP DTD (PNG Image Support)">the section called “GDP DTD (PNG Image Support)”</a> you 287 will need to install the special GDP DocBook DTD which 288 supports PNG images, the format used for all images in GNOME 289 documentation. For the basic DocBook structure used to insert 290 images in a document, see <a href="indexs02.html#jadeimages" title="Images in DocBook Tools">the section called “Images in DocBook Tools”</a> above. 291 </p><div class="sect3"><a name="screenshotappearance"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="screenshotappearance"></a>Screenshot Appearance</h4></div></div><p> 292 For all screenshots of windows that typically have border 293 decorations (e.g. applications and dialogs, but not applets 294 in a panel), GDP standards dictate 295 the appearance of the window. (This is to minimize possible 296 confusion to the reader, improve the appearance of GNOME 297 documents, and guarantee the screenshot is readable when 298 printed.) All screenshots should be taken with the SawFish 299 (formerly known as Sawmill) window manager using the 300 MicroGui theme and Helvetica 12pt font. (A different window 301 manager can be used provided the MicroGui theme is available 302 for this window manager and the appearance is identical to 303 that when using the SawFish window manager.) The default 304 GTK+ theme(gtk) and font (Helvetica 12 pt) should be used 305 for all screenshots. If you are unable to provide 306 screenshots in this form, you should create screenshots as 307 you wish them to appear and send them to the 308 <a href="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-doc-list/" target="_top"> 309 <i>gnome-doc-list mailing list</i> </a> 310 requesting a GDP member reproduce these screenshots in the 311 correct format and email them to you. 312 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="screenshottools"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="screenshottools"></a>Screenshot Tools</h4></div></div><p> 313 There are many tools for taking screenshots in 314 GNOME/Linux. Perhaps the most convenient is the 315 Screen-Shooter Applet. Just click 316 on the window icon in the applet and then on the window you 317 would like to take a screenshot of. (Note that 318 at the time of this writing, PNG images taken by 319 screenshooter do not appear properly in 320 Netscape or the 321 GNOME Help Browser. You 322 should save your screenshot as a GIF and 323 then use <b>convert filename.gif 324 filename.png</b>.) For applets 325 in a Panel, 326 xv can be used to crop the 327 screenshot to only include the relevant portion of the 328 Panel. Note that 329 xv and 330 gimp can both be used for taking 331 screenshots, cropping screenshots, and converting image 332 formats. 333 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="screenshotfiles"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="screenshotfiles"></a>Screenshot Files</h4></div></div><p> 334 Screenshots should be kept in the main documentation 335 directory with your SGML file for applets, or should be 336 kept in a directory called "figs" for application and other 337 documentation. After you use <b>db2html</b> to 338 convert your SGML file to HTML (see <a href="indexs02.html#make-output" title="Creating Something Useful with your Docs">the section called “Creating Something Useful with your Docs”</a>), you will need to copy your 339 screenshots (either the individual PNG files for applet 340 documentation, or the whole "figs" directory for other 341 documentation) into the newly created HTML directory. Note 342 that every time you use <b>db2html</b> the HTML 343 directory is erased and rewritten, so do not store your only 344 copy of the screenshots in that directory. If you wish to 345 create PostScript or PDF output, you will need to manually 346 convert the PNG images to EPS as described in <a href="indexs02.html#jadeimages" title="Images in DocBook Tools">the section called “Images in DocBook Tools”</a>, but will not need to copy these 347 images from their default location, as they are included 348 directly into the output(PostScript of PDF) file. 349 </p></div></div><div class="sect2"><a name="applicationbugs"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h3 class="title"><a name="applicationbugs"></a>Application Bugs</h3></div></div><p> 350 Documentation authors tend to investigate and test applets and 351 applications more thoroughly than most 352 users. Often documentation authors will discover one or 353 more bugs in the software. These bugs vary from small ones, 354 such as mis-spelled words or missing 355 About dialogs in the menu, to large 356 ones which cause the applet to crash. As all users, you 357 should be sure to report these bugs so that application 358 developers know of them and can fix them. The easiest way to 359 submit a bug report is by using the Bug 360 Buddy applet which is part of the gnome-applets 361 package. 362 </p></div><div class="sect2"><a name="cvs"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h3 class="title"><a name="cvs"></a>Using CVS</h3></div></div><p> 363 CVS (Concurrent Versions System) is a tool that allows 364 multiple developers to concurrently work on a set of 365 documents, keeping track of the modifications made by each 366 person. The files are stored on a server and each developer 367 checks files out, modifies them, and then checks in their 368 modified version of the files. Many GNOME programs and 369 documents are stored in CVS. The GNOME CVS server allows 370 users to anonymously check out CVS files. Most GDP members 371 will need to use anonymous CVS to download the most up-to-date 372 version of documentation or programs. Modified documents will 373 typically be emailed to the the application developer. Core 374 GDP members may also be granted login CVS privileges so they 375 may commit modified files directly to CVS. 376 </p><div class="sect3"><a name="anonymouscvs"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="anonymouscvs"></a>Anonymous CVS</h4></div></div><p> 377 To anonymously check out documents from CVS, you must first 378 log in. From the bash shell, you should set your CVSROOT 379 shell variable with <b> export 380 CVSROOT=':pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.gnome.org:/cvs/gnome'</b> 381 and then login with <b>cvs login</b>(there is no 382 password, just hit return). As an example, we will use the 383 "gnome-docu/gdp" module which contains this and several 384 other documents. To check these documents out for the first 385 time, type <b>cvs -z3 checkout 386 gnome-docu/gdp</b>. After you have this document 387 checked out and you would like to download any updates on 388 the CVS server, use <b>cvs -z3 update -Pd</b>. 389 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="logincvs"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="logincvs"></a>Login CVS</h4></div></div><p> If you have been given a 390 login for the GNOME CVS server, you may commit your file 391 modifications to CVS. Be sure to read the following section 392 on CVS etiquette before making any commits to CVS. To log in 393 to the CVS server as user 394 <b><i><tt>username</tt></i></b> with a 395 password, you must first set your CVSROOT shell variable with 396 <b> export 397 CVSROOT=':pserver:<i><tt>username</tt></i>@cvs.gnome.org:/cvs/gnome'</b>. 398 Log in with <b>cvs login</b> and enter your 399 password. You may check out and update modules as described 400 above for anonymous CVS access. As a login CVS user, you may 401 also check modified versions of a file into the CVS server. 402 To check 403 <b><i><tt>filename</tt></i></b> into 404 the CVS server, type <b>cvs -z3 commit 405 <i><tt>filename</tt></i></b>. You will be 406 given a vi editor window to type in a brief log entry, 407 summarizing your changes. The default editor can be changed 408 using the <tt>EDITOR</tt> environment variable or 409 with the <b><tt>-e</tt></b> option. You 410 may also check in any modifications to files in the working 411 directory and subdirectories using <b>cvs -z3 412 commit</b>. To 413 add a new file to the CVS server, use <b>cvs -z3 add 414 <i><tt>filename</tt></i></b>, followed by the 415 commit command. 416 </p></div><div class="sect3"><a name="cvsetiquette"></a><div class="titlepage"><div><h4 class="title"><a name="cvsetiquette"></a>CVS Etiquette</h4></div></div><p> 417 Because files in CVS are typically used and modified by 418 multiple developers and documentation authors, users should 419 exercise a few simple practices out of courtesy towards the 420 other CVS users and the project leader. First, you should 421 not make CVS commits to a package without first discussing 422 your plans with the project leader. This way, the project 423 leader knows who is modifying the files and generally, what 424 sort of changes/development is being done. Also, whenever a 425 CVS user commits a file to CVS, they should make an entry in 426 the CVS log and in the <tt>ChangeLog</tt> so 427 that other users know who is making modifications and what 428 is being modified. When modifying files created by others, 429 you should follow the indentation scheme used by the initial 430 author. 431 </p></div></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a href="index.html">Prev</a>�</td><td width="20%" align="center"><a href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right">�<a href="indexs03.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left">The GNOME Handbook of Writing Software Documentation�</td><td width="20%" align="center"><a href="index.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right">�The GNOME Documentation System</td></tr></table></div></body></html> 432
