Project:ComRel/Developer Handbook/Help for new developers

This section provides help and instructions for new developers.

Introduction
This guide is not intended to be a manual on using CVS; for that, take a look at the CVS info page or /doc/en/cvs-tutorial.xml. Instead, this guide focuses specifically on using CVS and Repoman in Gentoo's ebuild tree.

Configuration
Typically, you'll want something along these lines in your ~/.cvsrc:

Finally, many people using CVS like to use compression (-z#). We ask that developers who are not on dialup connections please use -z0 - with the contents of our CVS repository and the load on our CVS server, you actually experience a speed increase without compression.

Checking out from CVS/SVN
There are a few useful modules in Gentoo's CVS repository. Ebuilds are kept in the gentoo-x86 module. gentoo contains the XML for the website, documentation, developer directories, developer pictures, and so on. gentoo-projects contains various projects and generally replaces the gentoo-src cvs module. gentoo-src is kept around for history, please transition to a different cvs module if you are still using it.

Checking out gentoo-x86:

Before working in the tree at any time, it's always a good idea to do an update to check for changes and prevent conflicts. You can update in any subdirectory of the tree if you don't want to wait for a tree-wide update, but from time to time it's a good idea to update your entire tree:

Updating in gentoo-x86:

Gentoo also offers subversion services for those who prefer SVN over CVS. Many core projects such as portage and baselayout are hosted here now.

Check out portage:

Updating Portage
If you want to use CVS as your primary Portage tree, you can add the following lines to /etc/make.conf, replacing you with your username:

On supported architectures, you should also have sandbox in your FEATURES to ensure ebuilds do not modify the root filesystem directly.

Adding/Removing packages
Say you're ready to add a brand new package, foo, in app-misc. To add a package replace CVSROOT with the location of your checked-out CVS tree:

Always update before working in part of the CVS tree!

Here, we add the package directory foo to the CVS repository:

It's better to keep in-progress ebuilds in an overlay outside of your CVS tree:

Make sure PORTDIR_OVERLAY is set to the CVS directory when creating manifests:

You don't necessarily need a files directory any more:

Don't forget to create a ChangeLog - see the man page for echangelog:

See the Gentoo Metadata section for more information on the file.

At this point, you're ready to commit (see the section on Commits below). But what if you want to remove foo-1.0 when foo-1.1 is out? To removing old versions:

And now you're ready to commit (see the section on Commits below).

Commits
Always use repoman commit rather than cvs commit. Repoman is a quality assurance (QA) tool that performs basic checks and creates Manifests. If any part of repoman's output is unclear, please see man repoman. Additionally, you may tire of entering your key passphrase repeatedly; keychain (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/keychain-guide.xml) can help you.

When using repoman, make sure there are no root-owned files present prior to running repoman! "scan" scans the current directory for QA issues. "full" is more complete.

"commit" does a scan, then commits, while also updating the Manifest. Make sure you add a verbose and useful CVS ChangeLog message...

Speeding CVS up
If you have noticable high ping times to the cvs server, you might want to use the ssh master slave setup where you only connect to the other ssh server once and let it do the next commands over that connection. This way you save the handshake overhead which may speed up the whole checkout/commit by factor 3. Just add the code snippet given below to your config.

Putting files on mirrors
Distfiles are automatically fetched by the Gentoo Mirror System. You only need to monitor your distfiles for fetch errors. Please see the Distfiles Overview Guide for comprehensive instructions.

Mail and web
Our infrastructure allows developers to manage their own mail. Infra project's Developer email article contains instructions on configuring an @gentoo.org email address.

Developers have access to webhosting via http://dev.gentoo.org/~$DEV_USERNAME. Please see the Webspace configuration guide for details.