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

The findutils git tree includes several different types of
documentation.

7.1 git change log
==================

The git change log for the source tree contains check-in messages which
describe each check-in.  These have a standard format:

     Summary of the change.

     (ChangeLog-style detail)

   Here, the format of the detail part follows the standard GNU
ChangeLog style, but without whitespace in the left margin and without
author/date headers.  Take a look at the output of 'git log' to see some
examples.  The README-hacking file also contains an example with an
explanation.

7.2 User Documentation
======================

User-oriented documentation is provided as manual pages and in Texinfo.
See Note: 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.

7.3 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-hacking'
     Describes how to build findutils from the code in git.
'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.  Please add bugs to the Savannah bug tracker
     instead of adding entries to this file.

7.4 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?".
     The file is generated from the git commit messages during 'make
     dist'.  If a change fixes a bug, always give the bug reference
     number in the 'NEWS' file 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.