README-alpha

This is the GNU Inetutils package.
Copyright (C) 1999-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See end of file for copying conditions.

This document describes the actions needed to build GNU inetutils from
a pre-release tarball or sources checked out from the version control.

* Introduction

This is a *pre-release* version, and not ready for production use yet.
If you are taking source from version control, you will need to have
several special tools to help contribute.  See the section `Building',
below, for the detailed instructions on how to build the package.

Please, note that the accompanying documentation may be inaccurate or
incomplete.  See ChangeLog for the list of recent changes.

Report bugs to <bug-inetutils@gnu.org>

If you see a problem that you've already reported, feel free to
re-report it -- it won't bother us to get a reminder.  Besides, the
more messages we get regarding a particular problem the sooner it'll
be fixed -- usually.  If you sent a complete patch and nobody applied
it or got back to you, please let us know!

The source `tests/identify.c' should compile in all interesting build
environments, even without configuration.  The resulting executables
display some features known to have produced malfunctions in
portability.  Conveying some selected part of that output could help
us in locating the cause of compiling errors, or of missing
functionality in the built programs.

* Checking Out the Sources

The following instructions apply if you wish to obtain sources from
the version control repository.

To download the source tree from the repository, issue the following
command:

  git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/inetutils.git

This will give you read-only access.  If you think you need write
access, contact the mailing list.

* Prerequisites

You need the following packages, we don't make any extra effort to
accommodate older versions of these packages, so please make sure that
you have the latest stable version.

- Shell <https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/>
- Git <https://git-scm.com/>
- Make <https://www.gnu.org/software/make/>
- C compiler <https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/>
- Autoconf <https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/>
- Automake <https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/>
- Bison <https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/>
- Gnulib <https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/>
- M4 <https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/>
- Texinfo <https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo>
- help2man <https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man>
- ncurses <https://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/> (optional, for talk)
- xz <https://tukaani.org/xz/> (for 'make dist')
- Texlive & epsf <http://www.tug.org/texlive/> (for 'make dist')

* Building

1. Change to the source tree directory

   cd inetutils

2. Run

   ./bootstrap

For more information about `bootstrap', run `bootstrap --help', or see
the gnulib documentation.

3. Configure

   ./configure
   make

See the file INSTALL for standard instructions.

Before running "make dist" in a freshly bootstrapped directory, you
need to have run "make" at least once to create the binaries which are
needed by help2man when generating man pages.

See INSTALL and README for the detailed instructions.

* Development

If you are looking for something to hack on, please take a look at the
TODO file in the repository, or in our bug tracker
<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=inetutils>.

You can track the development process through the
<commit-inetutils@gnu.org> mailing list.  This is a medium volume
moderated list.

* Copyright information

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved.  This file is offered as-is,
without any warranty.

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