Last update: December 5, 2009
Helping the GSB Project
This page contains some useful information for people who want to start work developing the GNOME SlackBuild source. We are always looking for volunteer help to any aspect of GNOME SlackBuild, whether it be coders, documentation writers, bug finders, graphic designers, or even friendly advise and encouragement.
Come along to chat in the #gsb IRC channel on freenode.net or send an email to the development list.
If you are looking for other aspects of the GNOME SlackBuild Build system, please return to Main page.
Mailing Lists
There are several mailing lists used by the GNOME SlackBuild project. These are hosted by Google Groups, and in order to read or post to the mailing lists and groups, you must first subscribe. For details about subscription and a full list of our mailing lists, please see our Lists web page.
If you are a developer who would like to work on the GNOME SlackBuild project, you are encouraged to subscribe to two important mailing lists:
ChangeLogs
We have a variety of ChangeLogs available, including an SVN ChangeLog which gives an up to the minute description of the changes that are being made to the SVN developement tree, as well as ChangeLogs available for the binary builds of GNOME SlackBuilds. For a complete list of our ChangeLogs, please see ChangeLog web page.
Getting the Source
The only method supported of getting the GNOME SlackBuild source tree is to check out our source code from our svn repository. Please make sure to do so in a directory on a disk partition that has quite a bit of free space. For details about the disk space requirement, please see the Build page, and look at the Disk Space requirements.
Our development takes place in trunk, and if you would like to help develop GNOME SlackBuild, you will need to check this out. 'trunk' will always hold our latest build tree and sources, and this is where the majority of the work goes on.
You can check out the GSB Build System using the following command:
Current Branch
This tree contains the latest and most up to date GSB sources. As such, at any time it may be broken (ie, will not build fully) or may cause your system to explode in a shower of wires and capacitors if you run it. This tree is usually only for the latest Slackware/Slackware64 current and may not work on other releases.
$ svn co http://svn.gnomeslackbuild.org/gsb/trunk gsb
Or browse in svn: http://svn.gnomeslackbuild.org/viewvc/trunk
GNOME 2.26.3 Stable Tree
This is our GNOME 2.26 stable tree for Slackware 13.0 and Slackware64 13.0. This tree is kept up to date with the GNOME 2.26 sources and will be maintained (at least for the short->medium timeframe) with the minor 2.26.x releases GNOME provide.
$ svn co http://svn.gnomeslackbuild.org/gsb/branches/gsb-2.26.3_slack13.0/
Or browse in svn: http://svn.gnomeslackbuild.org/viewvc/branches/gsb-2.26.3_slack13.0/
This may take a long time depending on the speed of your internet connection. The tree will consist of SlackBuild build scripts, Slackware package description files (slack-desc), Slackware package requirements (slack-required) files and info file which contain download information and md5sums.
If you would like more information about using subversion, please visit their website and read the Subversion Book
Our build scripts can also be found on our ftp and http servers in the source/ directory.
Ways to Help
The best way to help the project is to use GSB. With more users and testers, we are more likely able to catch and fix problems. Making sure to report problems you come across is very appreciated and helps immensely. The only thing greater than reporting a problem is offering a solution! Dive right in. Patches and fixes are very welcome.
But there are many other ways of helping out the project:
Packages
- Sometimes the package description file, slack-desc, may have improper spelling, or bad grammar. If you spot something, let us know.
- slack-required files list all the dependencies of each package. If you find that a package you installed is missing a dependency, please point it out. These small things are sometimes accidently overlooked.
- Security is important to us as well! Package auditing would be helpful as well. If you ever find that a file has been incorrectly installed, or without proper permissions, please let us know immediately.
- Package conflicts may occur as well. We are only a small group of volunteers and cannot test every possible combination of software. If you find that one of our packages conflicts with a piece of software on your system, point it out and we will try our best to help resolve any issues.
Hosting
- MIRRORS are always needed, and the more the better. If you can help with hosting and setting up slapt-get repositories, please speak up! The more hosts we have, the easier it will be for users to download our software. :)
Translations
- Our web page and slack-desc files are only in English. Please let us know if you are interested in helping translate the web pages into other languages.
Testers
- Binary Package Testers will be useful to catch any errors or installation problems with the packages we ourselves provide.
- Build Tree testers are always welcome. Many individuals will prefer the "Build-It-Yourself" method, and we look forward to comments and patches from these users.
Graphics
- Good graphics artists are always in high demand! If you're interested in designing icons, splash screen, gdm theme, backgrounds, or graphics for the web site, please don't hesitate to send us an email. We'd be very interested in hearing from you!