ftp uploads now require an explicit replace directive to replace an existing file. (v1.2 of the ftp upload protocol.) See the
node "FTP Upload Directive File - v1.2", aka
http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/FTP-Upload-Directive-File-_002d-v1_002e2.html.
Also, v1.0 directives are no longer supported.
Some recent changes in the GNU Coding
Standards and Maintainer Information documents follow. The current versions
are available online at http://www.gnu.org/prep.
- As previously mentioned, but worth repeating, US contributors can now make use of an
electronic procedure for copyright papers, greatly speeding the process.
(Hopefully it will also be possible for non-US contributors in the
future, but that needs legal examination.)
- recommend using undirected quotes ('...' or "...") in user messages
(in the C locale), instead of the directed `...' recommended up to now.
- suggest using C99 where appropriate, but it is still not good to
require it for building.
- examples in multiple languages for conditional changes in ChangeLogs.
- more strongly recommend supporting and using UTF-8 when anything
non-ASCII is done.
- an email-based bug tracker is available to GNU packages; see
http://bugs.gnu.org.
Our friends at the Software Freedom Law Center have just informed us
that the FSF can safely accept scanned copies of signed assignments from
U.S. residents. We are also looking into the possibility of this working
for foreign contributors as well, but for now it is limited to U.S.
residents only. In addition, we have also made the decision to start
sending PDFs of the assignment to all contributors, whether they are
U.S. residents or not. We hope this will greatly aid in simplifying the
process and hopefully encourage more people to contribute.
The maintainers document has
been updated to reflect these changes <http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Copyright-Papers>. As part of switching to using
PDFs, the FSF will be contacting all contributors with outstanding
assignments so that they can also enjoy the benefits of the new process.
New node with sample text for packages wishing to ask for donations: http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Donations.html.
As long as information is not lost, it is now ok to use ranges in copyright years. Specifically: 1) every year in the range, inclusive, really must be a ``copyrightable'' year that would be listed individually; and 2) you make an explicit statement in a @file{README} file about this usage.
http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Copyright-Notices.html has been updated.
Encouraging development of free plug-ins, and discouraging development of proprietary plug-ins.
http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Dynamic-Plug_002dIn-Interfaces.html
The primary distribution site for GNU packages should allow access from anyone (for instance, without excluding any country).
Following CVE-2009-4029, we now recommend ensuring that distribution tarballs are created with mode 755, not 777. The latest releases of automake (1.11.1 and 1.10.3) implement this.
The licenses of the GNU coding standards and maintainer documents have been upgraded to GNU FDL version 1.3 or later. Other GNU documentation using the FDL should do the same at the next release. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html.
Note that Guile has good support for GTK+/GNOME these days. As Andy Wingo writes:
The eventual hope is for a different, more dynamic paradigm of
software, software that has the emacs-property.
The document of information for GNU maintainers is now available under the GFDL (1.2+, with no invariant sections) instead of the verbatim license.
A new section in maintain.texi (from Ward Vandewege, GNU sysadmin) describes new features supported by the ftp upload program, including making and removing symlinks, replacing files, and archiving old files.
new section in make-stds.texi explaining and more strongly recommending DESTDIR. Also, mention that some variables (presently docdir, htmldir, etc.) may not be supported in the currently released Autoconf/Automake.
New section on GNU's policy for implementing standards published by other organizations.
the rules for copyright notices, especially the list of years, have been simplified and clarified by rms and the lawyers.
New sections on quotation characters (`...' in the C locale) and character sets (ASCII).
The coding standards now specify directories and targets for more documentation formats: html, dvi, pdf, and ps, analogous to info.
With rms's approval, the gnustandards project at savannah will now hold the canonical sources for the GNU Coding Standards and Information for GNU Maintainers documents, instead of /gd/gnuorg on fencepost.