<p>project is a C source project template that permits fully
automagical project maintenance to be done with some simple (and not so
simple) make targets: make tgz, make rpm, make installweb, make cvs
for example.  It is worth several hours of work, minimally, in getting
a project off the ground, and gets it off on the right foot, with a lot
of things you might add "eventually" already there in template form,
ready to fill in.</p>

<p>project actually installs from the tarball ONLY -- or if you prefer,
the tarball IS the project template ready to use -- but this page and
distribution set is more or less automagically created by the make
installweb target, so it seems worthwhile to include the rpm's even if
they only install a trivial "Hello World!" program.</p>

<p>To use this template, create or change to your source directory (I
use $HOME/Src but suit yourself), put the project.tgz there and unpack
it:</p>

<pre>
 tar xvfz project.tgz
</pre>

<p>(and it should verbosely unpack).</p>

<p>Change to the project directory.  There is a README that gives
instructions on how to use to the template.  Most of the mucky part of
the process is encapsulated in a script called "newproject" that you can
read to see how it works.  To use this script for a new "rgb standard"
project, enter:</p>

<ul>
 <li> <pre>newproject projectname</pre>
 <li> <pre>cd ../projectname</pre>
 <li> <pre>cvs import -m "initial revision" projectname projectname start</pre>
 <li> <pre>cd ..</pre>
 <li> <pre>/bin/rm -rf projectname</pre>
 <li> <pre>cvs checkout projectname</pre>
 <li> <pre>cd projectname</pre>
 <li> <pre>make</pre>
 <li> <pre>./projectname</pre> (and Hello World example should run).
</ul>

<p>This presumes that you've got CVS setup (a functioning CVSROOT).  If
you want to use the make rpm targets, additionally you must:<p>

<ul>
 <li> Create a barebones rpm build tree.  I put all my sources in ~/Src
(as in ~/Src/project) and have my own rpm build tree in ~/Src/rpm_tree.
This is basically:<pre>
   ./rpm_tree
             \
             |-BUILD
             |-RPMS
             |-SOURCES
             |-SPECS
             |-SRPMS

</pre>(all empty and chmod 755).  Note that this is in USERSPACE.  You
don't need to be root to build root-installed rpm's.
 <li> Create the file ~/.rpmmacros containing:</pre>

%_topdir        /home/rgb/Src/rpm_tree

</pre>(where you should put in the path to YOUR Src tree, not mine:-).

 <li> You'll need to edit the RPM_TOPDIR macro in the Makefile to
point to this directory.  If I were REALLY good I'd make this a part of
the project, but it really is reusable and should be outside the project
source tree.

 <li> Edit the project.spec file and make the obvious changes.  This is
not intended to be an RPM build tutorial, but the enclosed spec file
should be pretty obvious.  If you complete the aforementioned two steps
before messing too much with the project template, you SHOULD be able to
execute "make rpm" and have it crank out both installation rpm's and src
rpms totally automagically.  Then all you have to do is keep it working
with frequent tests while adding new code and modules (which it is
presumed you know how to do).  Note that it is a GOOD IDEA to "make tgz"
after all final edits (including such details as changing version
numbers in the Makefile).

 <li> Complicated dependencies, fancy distributions, and so forth are
all up to you.  As I said, this isn't a tutorial in rpm building, just a
useful small project template.

</ul>

<p>Optionally edit the man page template, the README, the abstract (this
file), the php file, Remember, the man page is your friend.  Also
remember to update/modify the "Usage" statement in parsecl.c as you add
new command line commands, if any.</p>

<p>If you grab this project template and have any fundamental trouble
getting it working, let me know and I'll try to help you.  My email
address is rgb@phy.duke.edu.</p>