172 lines
7.6 KiB
Text
172 lines
7.6 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" [
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<!ENTITY base CDATA "../..">
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<!ENTITY date "$FreeBSD: www/en/gnome/docs/develfaq.sgml,v 1.25 2004/11/01 04:58:29 marcus Exp $">
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<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD GNOME Project: GNOME Development Branch FAQ">
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<!ENTITY % gnomeincludes SYSTEM "../includes.sgml"> %gnomeincludes;
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<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "../../includes.sgml"> %includes;
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]>
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<html>
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&header;
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<h2>Contents</h2>
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<ol>
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<li> <a href="#q1">What are development versions of GNOME all about?</a>
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<li> <a href="#q2">Should I track development versions?</a>
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<li> <a href="#q3">How do I obtain development versions of GNOME stuff?</a>
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<li> <a href="#q4">How do I keep everything up-to-date and in sync?</a>
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<li> <a href="#q5">What should I do when something does not work?</a>
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<li> <a href="#q6">How can I help with the development versions?</a>
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<li> <a href="#q7">What is the current state of development GNOME on
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FreeBSD</a>
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</ol>
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<h2>Full Text </h2>
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<ol>
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<!-- Q1 -->
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<li style="padding-bottom: 0.5em"><a name="q1"></a>
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<p><b>What are development versions of GNOME all about?</b></p>
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<!-- A1 -->
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<p>The development versions are the packages released by the GNOME
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project that will eventually become the stable (release) versions.
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There are three working branches of GNOME development:</p>
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<ol>
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<li><b>STABLE</b> - The applications and libraries in the stable
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branch are considered "release quality," and are the versions that
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appear in the FreeBSD ports tree. The current stable version is
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GNOME &gnomever;.</li>
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<li><b>DEVELOPMENT</b> - In between stable releases are development
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releases. Traditionally, GNOME development releases have odd minor
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numbers (e.g. 2.3, &gnomedevelver;, 2.(n*2)-1). Development releases will
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become stable releases, and move from alpha to beta quality during
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their lifecycle. The development releases need testing by FreeBSD
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users to minimize the number of surprises when the new stable
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versions are committed to the FreeBSD CVS tree. This document is
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about the development branch. The current development branch
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is GNOME &gnomedevelver;.</li>
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<li><b>CVS</b> - Often newer-than-new, the CVS HEAD versions of GNOME
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applications and libraries are alpha quality, or often completely
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unbuildable. The FreeBSD GNOME project pays attention to, but
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does not track the alpha quality code.</li>
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</ol>
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</li>
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<!-- Q2 -->
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<li style="padding-bottom: 0.5em"><a name="q2"></a>
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<p><b>Should I track GNOME development versions?</b></p>
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<!-- A2 -->
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<p>If you are looking for a stable environment, absolutely not. Please
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only track the GNOME &gnomedevelver; branch if you wish to help identify bugs
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and improve the FreeBSD GNOME project. You will find little
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sympathy if a development-quality GNOME application eats your
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homework.</p>
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</li>
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<!-- Q3 -->
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<li style="padding-bottom: 0.5em"><a name="q3"></a>
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<p><b>How do I obtain the development versions of GNOME stuff?</b></p>
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<!-- A3 -->
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<p><a href="mailto:marcus@FreeBSD.org">Marcus</a> maintains a
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CVS repository where all the development versions of
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the GNOME components for FreeBSD are housed. Instructions for
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how to check out the development ports module and how to merge it
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into the FreeBSD ports tree reside on the entrance page to his
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repository. Please read carefully the instructions at
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<a href="http://www.marcuscom.com:8080/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi">http://www.marcuscom.com:8080/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi</a>.
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</p>
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<p>In order to help with bug reports, be sure to add the following
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to <tt>/etc/make.conf</tt> so that gdb back traces contain
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useful information:</p>
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<pre>
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CFLAGS= -O -g -pipe
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STRIP=
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</pre>
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</li>
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<!-- Q4 -->
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<li style="padding-bottom: 0.5em"><a name="q4"></a>
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<p><b>How do I keep everything up-to-date and in sync?</b></p>
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<!-- A4 -->
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<p>The short answer is that you need to use the <tt>marcusmerge</tt>
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script to merge the development tree with the FreeBSD ports tree.
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The <tt>marcusmerge</tt> script is available
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<a href="http://www.marcuscom.com/downloads/marcusmerge">
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here</a>, and a man page on using the script is available
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<a href="http://www.marcuscom.com/marcusmerge.8.html">
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here</a>. This script will merge the development ports tree
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into your main ports tree. From there, you can download
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the <a href="http://www.marcuscom.com/downloads/gnome_upgrade28.sh">
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gnome_upgrade28.sh</a> script to aid in upgrading from GNOME
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&gnomever; to &gnomedevelver;. Once you are running GNOME
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&gnomedevelver;, you can use <a
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href="/gnome/docs/faq2.html#q6">portupgrade</a> to stay
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up-to-date.</p>
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<p>The long answer is that keeping up-to-date with the GNOME
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development branch is complicated. Sometimes components change
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in a way that makes <tt>portupgrade</tt> fail, or causes strange end results.
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If you plan to track the development branch, it is a good idea
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to join the
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<a href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-gnome">
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freebsd-gnome</a> mailing list, as well as to join the
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<em>#freebsd-gnome</em> IRC channel on FreeNode (<tt>irc.freenode.net</tt>).</p>
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<p>If all of this sounds scary, or you need a desktop that
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"Just Works," you should stick with the stable GNOME branch.</p>
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</li>
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<!-- Q5 -->
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<li style="padding-bottom: 0.5em"><a name="q5"></a>
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<p><b>What should I do when something does not work?</b></p>
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<!-- A5 -->
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<p>It depends. If you think the problem is truly a bug with the
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GNOME component, you can report a bug using <b>bug-buddy</b> or
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the GNOME <a href="http://bugzilla.gnome.org">Bugzilla</a>
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interface (<b>NOTE:</b> Evolution's Bugzilla interface can be
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found <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">here</a>). If you think
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the problem lies in a FreeBSD port, or is FreeBSD-specific, send
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email to <a href="mailto:&email;@FreeBSD.org">&email;@FreeBSD.org</a>,
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or report the problem on the <em>#freebsd-gnome</em> IRC
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channel on FreeNode.</p>
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<p>Please forward all GNOME/Ximian bug IDs to
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<a href="mailto:&email;@FreeBSD.org">&email;@FreeBSD.org</a>
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so we can keep track of known issues. Thanks!</p>
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</li>
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<!-- Q6 -->
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<li style="padding-bottom: 0.5em"><a name="q6"></a>
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<p><b>How can I help with the development versions?</b></p>
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<!-- A6 -->
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<p>Currently, we need people to test as much as possible, and to file as
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many good bugs as possible. We also need people with artistic
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skills to create some hot <a href="/gnome/screenshots.html">
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screenshots</a>.</p>
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<p>Gnome-control-center and nautilus-media are currently
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broken under GNOME &gnomedevelver;. Hopefully, new releases
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should be available soon which will correct the
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breakage.</p>
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<p>Even if you do not like working directly with code, we need
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reports on experiences upgrading from GNOME &gnomever; to GNOME
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&gnomedevelver;; we need information on which apps are exhibiting
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strange behavior; we need to know in advance everything that an
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end-user is likely to wind up scratching his or her head about in
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the future.
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</p>
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</li>
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<!-- Q7 -->
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<li style="padding-bottom: 0.5em"><a name="q7"></a>
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<p><b>What is the current state of development GNOME on FreeBSD?</b></p>
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<!-- A7 -->
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<p>GNOME 2.9.1 has been released! Brave testers should
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consider it open season for testing and bug hunting.</p>
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</li>
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</ol>
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&footer;
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</body>
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</html>
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